Oylmpus Has Fallen

You ever have a moment where you watch a movie and you think... I've seen this exact movie before.

Believe it or not, I'm not talking about White House Down. These two movies came out at pretty much the same time. I don't know how that ended up happening, how two movies that had the same exact plot of a group of terrorists attacking the White House and one man fighting them off.

But no the movie I was thinking of was good old, Yippee Kay Yay motherfucking, Die Hard.

A film critic on youtube I watch often said it perfectly that the main character of this movie a good mix of Jack Bauer and John Mclain.

Oympus Has Fallen is the story of a Secret Service agent who used to be in the President's security detail but after an accident he's taken off the job. But when the White House is attacked by North Koreans and the President is taken hostage then its up to this lone agent to save the President and the entire United States of America.

Doesn't sound at all like Die Hard but these two movies are exactly the same.

There's a great video put on by Cracked comparing Die Hard with White House Down. In the video they say that White House Down did a better job at doing a Die Hard style movie.

That should be the last connection I make to White House Down because I haven't seen it. But here's the link to the video that prompted me to watch Olympus Has Fallen on Netflix.

4 Things 'Die Hard' Movies Need More Than Bruce Willis

Enough about Die Hard, lets talk about Oympus Has Fallen.

The movie follows the character of Mike Banning, a former special forces/Ranger, secret service agent who is the personal bodyguard of the President, played by Aaron Eckhart. While traveling to a Christmas party, the Presidential limo crashes and the first lady is killed. Banning feels to blame because he had the choice of saving the President or his wife and he chose the President.

Months later, North Korea and South Korea are at odds and the United States is worried about it. When a South Korea delegation comes, an attack suddenly breaks out, started by a C130, then an all out assault. All of the Secret Service is wiped out and the terrorist group takes over the White House. This first half hour to hour of the movie was one of the most over the top, ridiculous beginnings in the world. I think if I had watched this in the theaters in the summer I probably would have been more receptive to it but it was just insanely over the top.

And this was a trend pretty much throughout.

I'm not sure if I liked Aaron Eckhart in this movie. He didn't have much of a character at all. The majority of his screen time was at the beginning and when he was held hostage by the terrorists. One thing that bothered me about this movie was a plot involving 3 codes held by the President, the Secretary of Defense and the head of the joint chiefs. These 'Cerberus' codes will detonate any nuclear bombs... wonder if that's going to be used at all...

The problem I have with those codes was that if that was the end game, the terrorists took a long time extracting those codes from them. Once they start the hostage situation, there's a good half hour (in movie time) till they try and extract the code from the head of the joint chiefs. The President keeps pleading with them to tell them their code, he promises that it doesn't matter if they get the codes of others, they won't get his. But then in the end, they decrypt his code... throwing away a perfect scene to test the character and will of the President. Instead they crack the code, kind of making his character a little bit pointless in the end.

And then there's Morgan Freeman.

Morgan Freeman plays the Speaker of the House. While the President and the Vice President are in disposed, Morgan Freeman takes over and is the acting President.

Now usually, a character like this is one of two things, (typically in movies like this) a complete asshole, or not sure of himself that he doesn't quite know what to do as President. Morgan Freeman is neither. There's a speech he makes halfway through the movie to assure the American people that America will be okay and they'll get through. The thing is, if Morgan Freeman came on the television and said, "Don't worry America, everything is going to be alright" I would believe him. I didn't want the President to die but with Morgan Freeman as the President, I was kind of thinking, if the President dies, I don't think America will be that bad off.

And that was another thing, the big threat was the death of the President. If the United States doesn't remove troops from the 38 parallel in Korea then the President and his staff will be killed. I think a good angle this movie could have taken was question the value of the President and how much America is willing to sacrifice in order to keep him alive. I think in this circumstance, the threat of terrorists getting a hold of codes like the 'Cerberus' codes would be too big of a risk for the United States government and they would storm the White House in order to save the country regardless of the outcome of the life of the President.. but hey... that wouldn't allow for a hardcore action movie.

Unfortunately this movie suffers from a horrible sense of predictability. Too many things are alluded to and too many things happen that simply just tell what is going to happen. Very predictable and just over the top. There are a lot of scenes from this movie that I liked. In fact, there's a scene where Gerard Butler is sitting in the Oval Office with a number of weapons laid out in front of him on the President's desk. I had to pause the movie and just marvel at that scene. There were several times where I did this. I'm just wondering if I had had the same reaction if I had gone to the theater.

So is Olympus Has Fallen a good movie? Kinda? It's a fun movie for sure, realistic, by no means. Predictable, very. It was a very "Die Hard" like movie but it suffered from the over the toppness that

Die Hard 4 suffered from being so over the top that it wasn't fun anymore. The original Die Hard was simple, one guy against a group of terrorists in a building. Die Hard 4 was John McLain... and the FBI... and Justin Long... fighting the internet... and some terrorists? It wasn't simple enough. I think Olympus Has Fallen did a little bit of a better job of keeping it in an enclosed place but overdid it with the firepower and massacre.

Think about Die Hard. Hans Gruber and about 12 terrorists armed with machine guns take over the Nakatomi tower. Olympus has fallen was Gerard Butler versus a small army armed with RPGs, anti-air missiles, and nuclear launch codes.

Which movie is going to live in history forever? Die Hard.

But Olympus Has Fallen is a good time. Its a great movie for an action packed... action movie... An over-the-top action movie I'll admit. But its fun. Get some buddies together, get some alcohol and it should be an awesome time. Enjoy!